Huarizo’s; a new tapas option or one of our Woolly Army?

It sounds like ‘chorizo’ but it’s spelt like ‘huarizo’ and it’s actually a llama and alpaca cross. We have a huarizo called Frodo and he comes trekking up Catbells with our llama boys, and for a little chap, he’s kind of a big deal!

For more details on our llama treks in the Newlands Valley, click HERE

According to Wikipedia: A huarizo is a cross between a male llama and a female alpaca. The most common hybrid between South American camelids,^[1] huarizo tend to be much smaller than llamas, with their fibre being longer.^[2] Huarizo are sterile in the wild, but recent genetic research conducted at the University of Minnesota Rochester suggests that it may be possible to preserve fertility with minimal genetic modification.

Frodo was re-homed to Alpacaly Ever After in 2018, we believe he was born in 2014. He is a beautiful boy, very calm and a great trekker. He’s developed a very strong bond aka bromance with JoJo one of our big llama boys, it’s very sweet and we always have to take them together if we’re heading off for a trek anywhere.

Huarizo’s are not common though; as they have neither the soft wool of an alpaca (although they are fluffier than llamas) nor the long athletic trekking legs of a llama they are not really the best of either breed. BUT we love Frodo and he does come trekking with us, in fact he’s one our favourite trekking buddies.

One of our lovely guests recently created this lovely video of her trekking day with Frodo….

Wordsmiths: Rachel Kearns & Emma Smalley